I knew that I was in trouble when I came home from work and found the lawn roller dropped off in my driveway, compliments of my father-in-law

He has a really nice yard and works hard to keep it that way.

I appreciate a nice yard, and the winter and wildlife had roughed up more than one spot in my landscape.

On the other hand, the best fishing of the year was just starting to begin and the turkey season was right around the corner as well. I had to make the difficult choice between putting the battery charger on the lawn tractor or on the fishing boat batteries.

I decided to put off the decision until I had a cup of coffee, which I hoped would help me focus on priorities in my life.

This plan might have worked in my favor, as the morning was cool but sunny and there was a lot of bird and squirrel activity in the lawn for me to casually contemplate while toasting an English muffin.

Just as I was about to make the right call for the tractor, I noticed a hen turkey wander across the driveway. Nothing unusual, I've seen this lone hen before as she pecked around the turf looking for grubs and new grass.

More hens soon joined her, and now four turkeys stretched out across my front lawn working the grass in earnest with their powerful legs raking the turf with each step.

"Good," I thought. "They will scratch up the old matted grasses and aerate the soil."

It was about between the second pop-up of my muffin and some peanut butter that I noticed a new visitor strutting past my vantage point in the kitchen.

At first, I wasn't fully aware of his presence because there is a critical point for spreading peanut butter on a toasted muffin. If you go too soon with the spread, it will melt into a gooey mess. If you go too late, it will roll on it like putty.

When I was less distracted, the scenery in the yard had changed drastically. A mature gobbler had entered the domain of the four hens and he was doing his best to get their attention.

His beard was very nice and was as thick as a paint brush. I've seen longer beards, but he was an overall trophy bird. The gobbler had a beautiful full tail fan that was splendid as he danced for the attention of the ladies.

A turkey, or any bird for that matter, has a strong set of muscle controlling in their tail feathers, which act like a rudder for flying, landing and courting.

This male turkey put on a display of tail feather control that was outstanding. He opened it in a semicircle and dragged his wing tips to the ground to gain the attention of the hens.

When that didn't work for him, he did the sideways turn and walked like a matador in the ring with a tail feather cape waving at a bull. One by one, the hens filed by him and headed for the woods without passing a second glance his way.

I went for the camera to get a picture of this gobbler and the mating dance that he was attempting. I pulled the camera out of the case and I noticed that the turkeys were leaving faster than I was getting ready.

I pulled up for the shot and something appeared in the viewfinder — a red bar. The batteries needed charged on my digital camera.

It appeared that my earlier dilemma with the charging of the boat batteries, the lawn tractor and now the camera was spreading and caused me more grief. Here was a perfect picture and I wasn't ready for it.

I did what any man of action would do: I told the wife to get some batteries for the camera, if she got a chance.

I didn't catch her reply because muffins are noisy when being chewed and the battery that kept beeping on the smoke alarm indicating low battery.

The demands on a man's day are just never easy when it's fishing and spring gobbler time and he has to deal with batteries.